I know, I know, a silent film about a talking monkey doesn’t seem to make much sense, but if Tod Browning could make a silent about ventriloquism (THE UNCANNY THREE) then I say Raoul Walsh (yes! he!) is more than entitled to centre a melodrama on the phenomenon of simian conversation: THE MONKEY TALKS (1927). In [...]
THE KING AND FOUR QUEENS is an oddball Western comedy-drama about an adventurer (Clark Gable) after $100,000 in gold. The gold was stolen by the four McDade brothers, three of whom died in an explosion shortly thereafter; which son escaped is an open question. The gold has been guarded at a remote desert outpost for two years by Ma McDade (Jo Van Fleet) and her four daughters-in-law. Ma lives in the...
Heartbreak & Vine Film Festival Day 14 The great Ida Lupino Road House, directed in 1948 by Jean Negulesco Private Hell 36, directed in 1954 by Don Siegel They Drive By Night, directed in 1940 by Raoul Walsh
I despaired of ever finding THE MONKEY TALKS, an uber-obscure silent Raoul Walsh caper, but find it I had to do, for it features in a saucy still in Denis Gifford’s transeminal A Pictorial History of Horror Movies, and I am sworn — sworn! — to see every film illustrated therein. In the movie, the talking [...]
One of the best and most fascinating things about cinema is the tension between its status as art and its status as industry. There is nothing new about this idea. But the way we construct the categories of 'popular cinema' and 'art cinema'--in starkly opposing fashion--holds them further apart than they really are or should be. It's good to be reminded of this on a regular basis. So, my ears always...
Hitting A New High1:35am Monday, 26 Oct 2009 Repeat G A nightclub singer dreams of being a star at the Met and ends up on an African safari. CAST: Lily Pons, Jack Oakie, Eric Blore, Lucille Ball DIR: Raoul Walsh (1937)
According to some comments on the net, today’s pick is „très jolie“, even „sublime“, and perhaps it’s going to be your guilty pleasure, too. My elder sister tells me that 1975 was a hot year: You could be a teen idol with a bargain haircut, Woolworth pyjama shirt, and a boof-ta beach promenade drama tune combining dernier cru denim fashion with foot fetishism...
TWISTER: The teams return for a new season with new vehicles to bring them even closer to the action on 'Storm Chasers Greatest Storms' at 8 p.m. on Discovery. SERIES Desperate Housewives: Bree (Marcia Cross) comes to the rescue as...
"There was theatre (Griffith), poetry (Murnau), painting (Rossellini), dance (Eisenstein), music (Renoir). Henceforward there is cinema. And the cinema is Nicholas Ray." - Jean-Luc Godard I watched Johnny Guitar last night and all I have to say is - let the gushing begin. Seriously, Johnny Guitar is what cinema was and still should be. Combining Ray's unique talent for visually luscious filmmaking...
It's up and flapping, my Mad Men Monday meditation, where this week Don and Betty take divergent adulterous paths as Sal fends off the unsavory advances of a long wet lunch. Also be sure to read Tonya Plank's comprehensive recap...
Since the Siren recently dissed another Ida Lupino movie in a big way, it is only fair that she make amends and write up the lovable, unclassifiable The Man I Love . The Siren has no idea what Warner Brothers, via the great Raoul Walsh, was trying to make here--it's noir, it's a musical, it's a women's picture and a romantic melodrama, with bits of The Best Years of Our Lives and Casablanca . Given...
Here’s Andre De Toth, in De Toth on De Toth, on the famous paddle-ball scene from HOUSE OF WAX ~ Andre De Toth: That shot gave me the only problem with the herd of second-guessers. They all wanted more of it; I didn’t. Bernie Foy knew to get off the stage before the applause dies. Jack Warner [...]
Tennessee-Florida is my textbook definition of a meteor game, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be glued to the tube this Saturday when it comes on. Mr. Swindle has his usual brilliant take on things. I particularly enjoyed this passage, which, um, colorfully expresses the essence of why it’s really not such a hot idea to [...]
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